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Country |
In geography and politics, a country is a political division of a geographical entity. Frequently, but not always, a country is considered a Sovereign territory and is associated with the notations of State, Nation and Government. Formal recognition as a country requires the fulfillment of the Constitutive theory of statehood. The Constitutive theory of statehood requires that to be recognized as a country, a region must receive recognition from other countries, which, in turn, are themselves recognized by other countries.
In common usage, the term country is used casually in the sense of both nations and states, with definitions varying. In some cases it is used to refer to both states and other political entities,123 while in some occasions it refers only to states4 It is not uncommon for general information or statistical publications to adopt the wider definition for purposes such as illustration and comparison.5678910
In ancient history, no civilization has completely fulfilled the current criteria to be classified as a country. The main falling point of these civilizations is that they are not recognized by other civilizations out of ignorance of each others existence. The Roman Empire was the oldest civilization to be classified as a country by today's standards.
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For an entity to be classified as a country, it must fulfill the Constitutive theory of statehood, this internationally recognized convention requires that for an entity to be recognized as a country, it must be recognized by other entities, that are, in turn, recognized themselves.11
One of the most commonly cited criteria cited by micronations in regards to their eligibility to become countries is the Montevideo Convention. The Montevideo Convention was signed on December 26 1933 by 19 of the United States and contrary to popular belief, was never internationally ratified. The Montevideo Convention has four conditions that an entity must meet to become a country, a country must poses:
Because of these easy to meet criteria, the Montevideo Convention was never accepted by the international community, instead, the Constitutive theory of statehood was devised.11
The first ancient civilizations appeared approximately 8000 BCE in the Anatolian highlands of central Turkey, this large Stone Age community leaves no evidence of its formation with archeologists and historians agree that this is where civilization began.12 Although civilizations of sorts have existed since this time, for the next 5000 years they remained as small communities. The first countries of sorts, was those of early dynastic Sumer, and early dynastic Egypt, which arose from the Uruk period and Predynastic Egypt respectively at approximately 3000BC.13 Early dynastic Egypt was based around the Nile River in the north-east parts of Africa, the country's boundaries were based around the Nile and other places where oasises existed.14 Early dynastic Sumer was located in southern Mesopotamia with it's borders extending from the Persian Gulf to parts of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers.13 By 2500 BCE the Indian civilization, located in the Indus Valley had formed. This basic country extended 600KM inland from the Arabian Sea.15 Between the 2200-509 BCE many societies existed without definite borders.16 The Roman Empire (509 BCE-476 CE) was the first civilization to define their borders. Instead of the empire defining its borders with precision, the borders were allowed to trail off and were, in many cases, indirectly ruled by others.17
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